The Twilight TwentyFive  Round Three
by emavalexis
Summary: A series of 25 drabbles consisting of exactly 100 words, written for LiveJournal's thetwilight25 community challenge. Ratings and characters/pairings will vary.
1. Chapter 1

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **1  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Edward/Bella**  
Rating: **K

'And time never changes much for you, does it?' she asked knowingly – far too knowingly for my comfort. She had a way of sensing the truth that might have alarmed me had I been human. So far she was the only one I'd met in my life as a vampire who could so disarm me.

I traced the alluring webwork of veins in her wrist, realizing, for the first time, really, what it was about becoming a vampire that appealed to her so much.

'You might not want anything to change _now_, Bella. But you will.'

She needed to understand.

* * *

_A/N: You can find the pictures used for all of these prompts at:_

_http : / community . livejournal . com / thetwilight25 / 13912 . html_

_Many thanks to Jenn for pre-reading the entire batch. I adore your face._


	2. Chapter 2

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **2  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Edward/Bella**  
Rating: **T

'Dollar drinks tonight for the ladies,' the waiter said with a wink, trying to entice the women in our group into indecency through inebriation.

If he kept picturing my wife naked, I wouldn't have a problem re-embracing the whole drinking from humans thing.

'You're cute,' Bella gushed. 'I'll have a whiskey sour.'

I looked at her incredulously. 'You're a vampire, for fuck sakes!' I hissed under my breath. 'And you're flirting with him!'

Rosalie and Alice snickered as Bella arched an eyebrow at me.

'It's fun keeping you on your toes.'

Where were Jasper and Emmett when I needed them?


	3. Chapter 3

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **3  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Bella)**  
Rating: **K

This was her moment, her becoming. Her acceptance of a fate she could no longer delay.

It was time for her to stop running.

She came to an abrupt halt in the alleyway and tilted her head back under fresh rain. Opening her eyes to Heaven, she prayed.

She wondered if God would still hear her voice after the change. Would He understand why she'd done it? How she'd chosen not only out of love and devotion, but out of a desire to finally become the person she was always meant to be?

God had a decision to make, too.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **4  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Renesmee)**  
Rating: **K

It's not unlike tumbling toward ecstasy, the freedom of cold Alaskan air biting into her flesh, her lungs, these feet that have carried her so far yet still not far enough. She's never been truly _alone_, and there's power – a giddy freefall – in the fact that she's come this far without turning back.

Her family, they'll hold onto the shape of her within them until she one day decides to return. Until then, she wants to really know what it's like to feel human in some grand way. She wants the world to swallow her up.

This is her beginning.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **5  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Emmett/Rosalie**  
Rating: **K

Rosalie hovered outside of the room as he very carefully tucked into the first of his father's wartime letters home.

'Babe, why don't you come in here with me?' He lifted his eyebrows at her as she appeared in the doorway.

'They're yours,' she answered, as if that were reason enough.

Emmett replied without missing a beat. 'So are you.'

She sat tentatively beside him.

'He couldn't wait to get home to see you,' she murmured after they'd finished every one. 'All that time, every single one-'

'Your dad loved you, too, Rosie. You're lucky he didn't have to go.'

* * *

_A/N: The letters Emmett and Rosalie are reading were written by his father to his mother during the __**First **__World War, when – according to the lexicon – Emmett would have been a baby._


	6. Chapter 6

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **6  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Emmett, Renesmee)**  
Rating: **T

'_He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts_,' Emmett reads aloud from over his niece's shoulder.

'That's incredibly annoying, you know,' Renesmee says irritably, not bothering to look up.

'I bet.' Emmett snort-laughs and ruffles her hair. 'What sorta horseshit are you reading, anyway?'

'Well, it's not for class, I can tell you that.' Renesmee has inherited a fair measure of her father's haughtiness and it makes Emmett roll his eyes. 'We're surrounded by much better books here, in case you didn't notice.'

'So Stephen King is sophisticated literature now, huh?' Emmett asks, amused.

Renesmee scowls.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **7  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Bella)**  
Rating: **T

She loved walking around campus in the dead of night.

She especially loved it when a human materialized – invariably male and full of either chivalrous bravado or the kind of lust and loathing that can breed malice in the hearts of men. The latter were her favorite.

Nothing made a person taste better than unchecked rage turned to fear. These men thought they had lucked upon the easiest of targets: an innocent-looking co-ed who'd lost track of the time after studying into the wee hours.

She couldn't have chosen a better scenario if she'd tried.

Edward would've been so proud.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **8  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Edward/Bella**  
Rating: **M

'_Fuck_.'

'Isn't that what we're doing?' she huffs teasingly, her hips straining to keep up with his. He presses her harder into the wall with each erratic thrust. The part of her brain that can still think worries they might break through if they're not careful, but she quickly decides she doesn't give a shit.

Besides, this is Edward, he of infinite restraint. He fucked her on their wedding night, when she was a fragile _human_.

'That music is annoying,' he grits out.

'You're the one who wanted... to do it... in a jazz club,' she whisper-screams as she comes.


	9. Chapter 9

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **9  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Charlie)**  
Rating: **T

The kid's haunted, that's for sure. Charlie's heart goes out to him. Small-town police work hasn't hardened him in the kind of way policing in a big city would've. And this kid, well, he's all alone in the world now, and what a goddamn way for that to have happened.

'Seems pretty open and shut to me, but I'll get my report to you as soon as possible.' The coroner. There's a guy that gives him the heebie-jeebies but good.

He nods wordlessly and steps up to the window, placing a hand on the kid's shoulder.

'Time to go, son.'


	10. Chapter 10

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **10  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Jasper/Alice**  
Rating: **K

'You never learned how to ride a bike? How did I not know this?'

Alice looked at her husband with an incredulous expression on her face.

'When was I supposed to have been riding this bike?' He snorted. 'Wasn't much call for bicycles in the South in those days, 'least not the way my daddy saw it.'

'Preposterous,' she scoffed. 'Well, that settles it, we need to get you on a bike.'

'Whatever for?' He kissed her hand.

'How else are we supposed to compete in the school triathlon next month?'

He grinned at her. Alice sure kept things interesting.


	11. Chapter 11

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **11  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Alice, Bella)**  
Rating: **K+

'Wow, we've traveled really freakin' far already,' Bella exclaimed, tracing their progress on the map. 'This was a great idea.'

'Yeah, I thought we could use it.' Alice grinned. 'It's too bad Rosalie and Esme decided not to come, though. Rose would've found the cutest dress...'

'What about our men?' Bella asked, amused. 'See anything interesting for them?'

'Nah. Edward's gonna spend the week moping because you're away and Nessie's not there to keep him preoccupied. The guys' plan to distract him with old-school Mario Kart isn't looking very hopeful.'

They shared a laugh and pressed on down the highway.


	12. Chapter 12

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **12  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Jessica)**  
Rating: **K+

'This place is great. It's so peaceful.' She spun in a slow circle while her mother spread the picnic blanket and started to unpack the basket.

'It is, isn't it?' Jessica smiled up at her daughter. 'Your father and I were hiking through here one day and we just happened upon it.'

Lily dropped down beside her to help. 'How old was I then? And why didn't you ever bring me here before?'

Jessica swallowed back the grief that still lingered all these years later, hesitating before answering.

'It was before you were born, honey. Mike proposed to me here.'


	13. Chapter 13

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **13  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Edward/Bella**  
Rating: **T

Her skin was smooth and warm under his fingertips. Though not as warm as it _had _been when she was still human, the difference was pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things.

Some things might change, but they had eternity together.

With Renesmee back at the main house, they were free to spend hours rolling around, basking in each other. Alaska was beckoning and these were to be their last hours for many years in the little cottage that had seen them through the early days of their marriage.

They made love in every room they'd christened years before.


	14. Chapter 14

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **14  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Edward/Bella**  
Rating: **K+

'Oh God, you still have this old thing?'

Bella crinkled her nose as she seized the bottle cap from the shelf. Edward smiled wryly at her, swiftly crossing the room to pluck it from her fingers.

'It has sentimental value.'

'It's kind of just a piece of junk. You should probably throw it out.'

'Bella.'

'Edward.' She stared up at him. 'We can't cart _everything_ to Alaska. We'll look like freaky packrats.'

'Oh yeah? What about...' He peered into the box at her feet, trying to hide his smile. '... my old shoelaces?'

She turned away, pouting as he laughed.


	15. Chapter 15

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **15  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Renesmee)**  
Rating: **K

The sands of Bermuda are pink and populated, teeming with locals and tourists alike. She can get away with being just another strange face in the crowd here. On beaches full of bodies gleaming oiled oblivion, the odd shimmer of her skin draws no stares.

The ocean is even better. Warmed by the sun, it cocoons her – body and mind, she sinks below the surface and pretends for just a little while that she doesn't miss what she thinks she shouldn't.

Her mother's smile.

Her father's easy embrace.

Jacob.

Someday she'll go back. But for now, she can float away.


	16. Chapter 16

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **16  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Emmett/Rosalie**  
Rating: **K+

'Someone could lose their mind in a place like this,' Emmett whispered loudly enough that several of their classmates heard and started giggling.

Rosalie smirked. 'No kidding. It makes repeating high school over and over seem positively thrilling in comparison.'

Emmett snickered. 'We should find an empty cube and get it on.'

'Mister Cullen, Miss Hale.' Their teacher glowered at them. 'This is a place of business. If you insist on behaving like unruly children, I'd be happy to give you a week of detention when we return to the school.'

They looked at each other and burst out laughing.


	17. Chapter 17

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **17  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Edward/Bella**  
Rating: **T

'Why do you keep staring up at that chandelier?'

Edward's voice held an edge of irritation cloaked in amusement as he swung her around the ballroom.

'It's weird,' Bella replied, warily, once again eyeing the chandelier in question. 'It looks just like the one in the Titanic. Did you ever see that documentary? Or the movie? It's really creepy.'

Edward laughed. 'Uh, yeah. But in case you hadn't noticed, this isn't the Titanic. Hell, we're not even under water.'

'But it seems like we _could _be.' She scowled.

He pressed a kiss below her ear. 'We can go down together.'


	18. Chapter 18

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **18  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Jacob, Bella)**  
Rating: **T

'Oh, Jake. What did you do?' Bella gave him a sad look before bending to retrieve the pages from the water.

'I didn't do it on purpose, if that's what you're thinking.' His gaze moved past her and toward the horizon. 'Seems like an omen, though, doesn't it?'

She shook her head.

'Alice hasn't seen anything like that.'

'Yeah, well, she wouldn't, would she?' He frowned, silent as he watched Bella pick up the last sopping paper.

'Six months and all I get is a fucking letter. She can't even pick up a phone and call?'

'Renesmee loves you, Jake.'


	19. Chapter 19

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **19  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Edward)**  
Rating: **K+

In the Bayou, the music is like any other living creature. It's a wonder Edward didn't feel more apart from humanity than he did back when he was embracing the hedonism of being an honest-to-goodness, people-chomping vampire.

Memories. Funny thing, those. Now that he's been a 'vegetarian' again for many years, and he has his Bella for eternity, one would think the sheen of those days would be clean wiped away. That the shame and the horror would overpower everything he might secretly, well, not _miss_, but...

Damn, that music has a way of getting under even a vampire's skin.


	20. Chapter 20

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **20  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Renesmee)**  
Rating: **T

She finally wants to call home and the fucking payphone doesn't accept coins.

What payphone doesn't accept _coins_?

Better yet, why did she decide to leave her cell phone behind with everything else? Her dad would have hated not calling, but he would have respected her wishes. Her mom, though...

Bella Cullen is as stubborn a vampire as Nessie's been told she was as a human. Nothing could have stopped her calling for long, and really, Nessie's shocked that her mother hasn't come after her by now.

She sits at the side of the road and tries not to cry.


	21. Chapter 21

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **21  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Charlie, Bella)**  
Rating: **T

'Aww, Charlie, these are great. It looks like you and Renesmee had a really nice time.'

Bella finished looking through the last of the pictures and handed them back to him.

'Yeah.' He nodded, stuffing them back in the envelope. 'She's a great kid, Bells. I couldn't keep her out of that watering hole.'

'What about you?' she asked, smiling at the annoyed look on his face as he twisted the top off of a fresh bottle of Rainier. He'd always preferred cans, but the store was temporarily out.

'No goddamn way. Water's for fishin', in my book. Not swimmin'.'


	22. Chapter 22

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **22  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **Edward/Bella**  
Rating: **T

'You brought me to a _movie_?'

'Shut up, I thought it'd be nice to do something real teenagers do.' She thumped him on the shoulder.

'We do stuff real teenagers do all the time,' he pointed out. 'We go to high school, for one.'

Bella rolled her eyes.

'You know what I mean. God, I try to do something nice...'

'Real teenagers have sex,' he continued, squeezing her knee. 'We could go do that.'

'You're such a jerk. I can't believe I married you.' She pushed his hand away.

'How about we make out while the movie's playing?'

Pause.

'Okay.'


	23. Chapter 23

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **23  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Bella)**  
Rating: **T

A spark was all it took to start the fire that burned down her sometime childhood home.

It went quicker than she'd imagined. But then, that was probably fitting because everything else in her life seemed to happen in haste.

No dillydallying in the Swan lineage.

Charlie would have tipped a can to her with a firm nod. 'Damn right,' he would've said, and it would've been the truth. The man had enjoyed his downtime as much as anyone, but she'd never witnessed, nor did she suspect that he'd been lazy a day in his life.

'Damn right,' she whispered.


	24. Chapter 24

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **24  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Jasper, Bella)**  
Rating: **T

'Goddamn, _Physical Graffiti _was the shit,' Jasper mumbles with a contented smile on his face as he bobs his head to the rhythm.

Bella laughs out loud, perched back on her elbows and trying to hear whatever it is Jasper hears in the music.

'You and Charlie would get along great,' she says. 'I used to have to listen to this crap all the time. Which is a feat, considering the fact that I only ever spent the summers with him-'

Jasper cracks an eye open and interrupts. 'Bella, you're fucking with the flow,' he admonishes, half serious, half teasing.


	25. Chapter 25

**The Twilight Twenty-Five  
Prompt #: **25  
**Pen name: **en-glace**  
Pairing: **n/a (Alice, Bella)**  
Rating: **K

'Do you ever wonder how differently your life would've played out had you never become a vampire?'

Bella with her disarming questions again. She'd been a part of their family, had been one of _them_, for over 200 years now, and she still managed to surprise.

Alice shrugged. 'Not really. I mean, I can't even remember being human.'

Bella contemplated her silently for a moment, her expression hovering somewhere between contrite and grateful.

'I don't think I'll ever _forget_.'

Alice nodded. 'Quite the pair, aren't we?' She threaded her fingers through Bella's.

She couldn't have asked for a better friend.


End file.
